


there and back again

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Male-Female Friendship, Skye | Daisy Johnson's Superpowers, Some Plot, Soulmates, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 22:43:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13913697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Just writing my own happy ending to S5. :)





	there and back again

He had said in a heated moment that she was afraid of the consequences.

She's not sure if that entirely rings true. What feels most real at first is the sense of loss, the absence of him. The idea it could be permanent.

It sticks in her, married too closely to her anger. Probably not in the way he intended it to. She doesn't want to feel grateful for the time they had.

She wants this to stop.

It drives her to finish what they have to do in order to save the world. Retrieve the Grativonium, and use it to seal the breach he never came back from.

It wasn't for fear of what would happen to her, but because of her. She's been surrounded by the threat of violence most of her life, always adapting while still finding ways to fight back.

This is not something she wants to find a way to adapt to anymore. She's reminded that they can't alter spacetime, and she reminds them that if they can't, everything they've been doing is for nothing.

It ends the discussion.

Making herself seem insignificant or invisible is impossible now, even though she wanted to contain it and seal herself away in the future.

Yes, that younger person is still there, sounding dreadful and painfully younger, and all the doubts and fears that she carries are mixed with a different kind of rage that for once, isn't about guilt.

Another voice is there. Her voice. Today. Right now.

He knows better than to believe the she would ever let go. Even with the risk.

He should know that about her by now.

Maybe he does.

She holds on to that hope.

  
+++

  
"It's not sealing. Why?!"

"It doesn't make sense!" he yells, looking down at the display in frustration. "All of our calculations-"

She reaches out her hand towards the breach and concentrates, using her powers like she's done before to register the vibrations. It reminds her of something she's felt before.

Primal, and like it's in violation of some universal law in a way that she'll probably just get shot down if she tries to describe it.

"It's not right," she tells them, lowering her hand. "There's something else inside of it."

"Daisy, you need to see this," May says, appearing inside the room, dragging her attention away from the breach.

All of the monitors in the ready room are in alarm mode. It's still happening, even as they're trying to stop it.

"I'm going inside it," Daisy says, as May looks distressed. "You should get the team out of here, gather anyone who is left in the town."

May follows after her, and they stop in the corridor for a moment. She knows she thinks it's about Coulson, and yes, part of it is about that.

She has to know.

But also, she has to go in there and stop it, and she is the only one who can. It was always going to be her.

"I know what I'm doing," she pleads with her. "Trust me."

May doesn't try to stop her, but she follows her back to collect the others.

The breach is bigger now, and they're running out of time.

The voice inside her reminds her that she couldn't save Robin's father, that this time won't be any different.

Then she's grateful that he reminded her of who she really is, before he left.

Everything has told her that she has to lose in order to win. Her whole life, it seems, has lead to this moment and she would rather lose again than ignore what her heart is telling her to do.

Her heart, on the other side of that breach.

"I need you to get this off me," she tells Simmons, pointing to the inhibitor on her neck.

"Now."

  
+++

  
"You were the last person I expected to see."

"You," the walls of the room rumble at her. "You were the one that held the breach."

"Guilty as charged?" she shrugs, noticing that the room is a recreation of the compound on Malta, everything is upside down and right side up, disorienting.

"Did SHIELD create another monster?" he asks her, his visage twisting to escape from threads of Gravitonium holding it together. "Did they send one monster to fight another?"

The voice in her head reminds her that she is a monster. That there are only monsters left now, at the end of everything.

"The people who created me are waiting for you to finish it," she explains. "So they can take over. I thought you wanted to save the world, Dr. Hall?"

"That’s not my name anymore," he hisses through the air as liquid from a glass drips from the floor above her.

"I have another name, too. Want to know it?" she says, lifting her hand.

It almost sounds like a scream, a blinding, metallic scream as she unleashes her powers and she feels unsteady, like she could cause everything here to come apart.

"Daisy, stop!"

It's him, held inside the twisting hulk of metal below the floor, in that device. The tiles in the floor fall away, impeding every step she wants to take closer to him.

"Coulson!"

He's still here. He's still alive in here, and she's caught off guard, feeling suddenly powerless but with all her power buzzing inside of her, unrestrained.

"You were there at my beginning," Hall says, like he is pleased at this new development. "He sacrificed me to save you, and created a monster."

"He saved innocent people, he tried to stop you from becoming a monster!"

"Doesn't seem to have worked out the way he planned."

Whatever is inside of Coulson has spread, sending dark purple tendrils out across his face, coloring his eyes. Almost unrecognizable except for the pleading expression. The way she found him when he was under the machine after Raina had put him there.

"You don't belong here," she tells him, trying to not let emotion take over. "None of us do."

"What _is_ inside of him?" Hall asks her curiously, his form taking shape beside her as she looks down at Coulson tangled in the replica of the device Hall created.

"It's a bigger monster than either of us," she answers. "It's death."

"I only wanted revenge," Hall replies calmly. "Let's wait together, and watch. Shall we? I have nothing but time."

  
+++

  
She's not sure where she is.

Everything is so serene. Too nice and peaceful to ever be real.

She must be dead.

She only moves when the warm water slips over the legs of her uniform and droplets splash her face and she wants to cry and then turns in the wet sand and sees him there, next to her, eyes still closed.

"Coulson!"

She scrambles across the sand and leans over him, afraid to touch him, wondering if this is all more manipulation. She's learned to distrust all of her surroundings now.

His eyes flutter open, staring up into the sun and it picks up the flecks of color in them before he squints.

"I was thinking about TAHITI," he says, as a smile starts to creep across his face. "And you."

"What?" she asks, leaning closer to him, remembering the last moment she thought was real in that other dimension, filled with darkness. When the demon showed up. "Say something else."

"I guess, it thought Hall was more dangerous than I was? It was supposed to take me. We made a deal," he tells her, like he has doubts, too.

He cranes his neck to look up at her and she fights back tears, falling on her back next to him as the water comes up to their legs again.

"Is this real?" he asks her, in a small voice, turning his head to her, and his eyes seem full of questions too big for her to answer right now.

"Yes," she answers. Whether it's real or not doesn't matter right now. She wants to believe in it more than she cares about the reality of it.

He reaches between them for her hand to hold it in his, carefully turning her fingers over in his, when they both hear the sound of music drifting closer.

Of the voices of people, wandering down the beach to interrupt this moment.

"That's Quake!"

They both sit up to see a mass of tourists and locals taking their pictures with their phones, and she groans.

“Thanks for saving the world!”  
“Will you take a picture with me?”  
“Who’s the guy?”

They’re all silenced together as a blinding flash appears in the atmosphere.

“I need a vacation,” she mutters, getting to her feet and looking at the sand covering her suit, trying to swipe it away.

She stares down to find him still gazing up at her with that look.

She used to wonder exactly what it meant.

When he takes her hand and gets to his feet he shakes his head at the state of his clothes, and then pulls at the remains of his shirt to try to cover the scar on his chest.

“A vacation would be nice,” he says with a sigh, dragging his eyes away from her towards the sky again.

The crowd starts to surround her and she takes a few pictures and tries to smile, when she sees Coulson fishing through his pants pockets and finding his wallet with a triumphant expression.

"Okay, thank you," he says, putting his body between her and the tourists, walking her away from them as they head up towards the hotel.

"Hey, buy you a drink?" he asks, while she's still trying to collect her thoughts, and she takes a deep breath and looks at the scenery around them as they go.

"Yeah. I'd like that," she smiles back.

Then she takes his hand in hers.


End file.
